Germany has announced that it will not ratify the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) after its justice ministry voiced concerns about the international agreement. This does not mean that Germany won't eventually sign it - it simply means it has no plans to sign it "right now." A foreign ministry spokesperson told the AFP that the delay was to "give us time to carry out further discussions." Further details on what those discussions would be about were not disclosed at the time of this writing.

Latvia also announced that it will delay signing the agreement as well. Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia delayed ratification of the agreement earlier this week.

Worldwide protests of the agreement are expected this weekend.

In addition to approval of the European Parliament (which will vote on it sometime in the summer), ACTA requires ratification by participating countries.